1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to systems and methods for monitoring transactions and more particularly to systems and methods for monitoring transactions processed by multiple applications over a TCP/IP protocol.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a service-oriented architecture (SOA) or other similar architecture, it is often difficult to obtain a complete picture of events that occur when a transaction is processed by multiple applications. While various techniques may be used to monitor the performance of applications individually, there are few if any efficient approaches to view the overall performance of applications in the SOA or other similar architecture. Moreover, a user or administrator may be unable to analyze the performance of specific transactions as they flow through one or more networks of connected systems and applications. These problems make it difficult and time-consuming to debug or tune the performance of applications in an SOA. For example, it would be difficult to identify and correct bottlenecks in the system without more comprehensive information.
Currently, data logs may be generated to provide a record of events for each separate application in an SOA or similar architecture utilizing multiple applications communicating by way of a TCP/IP protocol. Because these data logs may be application specific, however, they may not provide a complete comprehensive view of the system or enable end-to-end analysis of transactions as they flow through the system. To obtain a more complete picture, an individual may need to manually obtain and compare logs from each application, a task that can be both tedious and inefficient.
In view of the foregoing, what are needed are systems and methods for monitoring transactions processed by multiple applications in an SOA or other similar architecture. Ideally, such systems and methods would provide a comprehensive end-to-end view of transactions processed by multiple applications, enabling a user to more easily debug and tune a multiple-application system.